Why Gordon Ramsay Never Sits With His Kids on a Plane

Gordon Ramsay is known the world over for his exquisite food and his fiery television personality. His hard work and dedication to his craft has increased his net worth to an estimated $54 million, according to Forbes. But don’t let his money fool you. Ramsay and his wife, Tana, may enjoy a few of the finer things in life, but they are working hard to ensure their children know the value of hard work. “I’ve never been really turned on about the money,” Ramsay recently told The Telegraph. “That’s not my number one objective, and that’s reflected in the way the kids are brought up.”

Ramsay added that he and his wife are so strict when it comes to not spoiling their children that when they travel together, their four kids — Matilda, 15, Jack and Holly, 17, and Megan, 18 — must make the journey in coach, while their parents enjoy the high life in first class. “They don’t sit with us in first class. They haven’t worked anywhere near hard enough to afford that. At that age, at that size, you’re telling me they need to sit in first class? No, they do not. We’re really strict on that,” he said. “I turn left with Tana and they turn right and I say to the chief stewardess, ‘Make sure those little f------ don’t come anywhere near us, I want to sleep on this plane.' I worked my f------ arse off to sit that close to the pilot and you appreciate it more when you’ve grafted for it.”

Each child, Ramsay added, is given about $50 a week to pay for their own phones and their bus fare. In addition to financial responsibilities, each of the children also learned how to cook so they understand how to feed themselves. “They all cook as a life skill as opposed to a career,” Ramsay said. “I never want to put that onus on them. I don’t want them with a badge, going into a kitchen [with people] thinking that’s Ramsay’s daughter or that’s Ramsay’s son.”

On top of sitting in coach and having to cook despite having a world-class chef for a father, the Ramsay kids will also have to forge their own fortunes. As Ramsay said, his money is "certainly not going to them. I’ve been super lucky, having that career for the last 15 years in the U.S. Seriously, it has earned a fortune and I’ve been very lucky, so I respect everything I’ve got," he said.